Projects

Matteo Cirenei, pictures of architecture

Alessandra Lanza

The photographer Matteo Cirenei began by doing abstract work focused on the city. Today his work is becoming more descriptive. Among his recent subjects, Expo 2015 and the work of Pier Luigi Nervi. Abitare interviewed him

“Abstraction? If often helped me find an equilibrium”, said the architectural photographer Matteo Cirenei (Schio, 1965) about the style that characterised his work for nearly twenty years, from the 1990s to 2014. But today his pictures are becoming more and more descriptive. Cirenei’s passion for photography developed while he was studying architecture. Right after graduation he began his black and white studies, which centred on Milan and other European cities, and referenced the work of painters like De Chirico, Sironi and Hopper, as well as photographers like Ezra Stoller, Julie Shulman and Oscar Savio.

Matteo Cirenei, Sundials, Institut du Monde Arabe

In these last two years Cirenei has partially distanced himself from the language of abstraction, as seen in projects like The Stately Side of Expo, where together with his colleague Marco Menghi, he documented first the assembly and then the dismantling of the pavilions for Expo Milano 2015, as well as the project he’s currently working on, Finding Pier Luigi Nervi, in which, again with Menghi, he pays homage to the famous structural engineer. Abitare asked him a few questions.

Can equilibrium be achieved with the naked eye, or only through photography?

“Equilibrium is totally subjective. Sure, a space can be capable of putting you at your ease. The architect has thought about the way in which the light moves, the way in which the full and empty spaces relate to people, but the equilibrium that I talk about is totally subjective and derives from a reading of forms and spaces using light. It’s a thing that I recreate: my photography is, if you will, pictorial, the antithesis of documentary photography”.

How has your concept of equilibrium evolved over the years?
“It has become more and more abstract and minimalist. The first images from the 1990s were muddled with very strong perspectives and dynamics. When I began I didn’t have a camera that allowed me to straighten lines and take perfect photographs of architecture. I had a Hasselblad and a 40 mm; I was working with a limited instrument, but still, it allowed me to reason and figure out my own language. If I had had a view camera I would have taken the same photos as everyone else”.

Did your style change during your reportage of Expo?
“When documenting the assembly phase, from February to May 2015, Marco and I used a very constructivist style, in black and white, with Rodchencko-like cuts. We wanted to highlight the human capacity to make and do, especially in a very limited timeframe. Starting in November 2015 we began to document the dismantling and I adopted a different stylistic technique, trying to also give these images feeling. I worked in colour, during a specific hour of the day, always before sunset and on days with crystal clear skies. A mix of nostalgia and at the same time of decadence”.

How important is light to your photography?
“It’s extremely important for creating the atmosphere in a space. I always loved clear light, which would give me strong contrasts, but I’ve also found it interesting, especially recently, to take photographs with the soft light that comes from shifting clouds, in changing weather conditions”.

In your work on Nervi are you returning to the aesthetic of years past?
“Yes, the language that I use can be traced to my previous period. What pushed Marco and me to work on this project was the realisation of the fact that many of the structures designed by Nervi have been abandoned or are nearly so. We started a year and a half ago, but this is a very long project because of the difficulty of getting permission to access these places. We want to gather together a large body of images that show the great uniqueness of his works, each one different from the other”.

Five products by Vico Magistretti – a light, two chairs, a table and a bookcase...

20 June 2017

Founded in 1961 by Piera Peroni Abitare magazine has crossed the history of costume, architecture and design, international, following in its pages the evolution of our ways of life and how we inhabit places